Opportunities in the Pharmacy Department

The Pharmacy department is a friendly, extensive and progressive department dedicated to providing the highest standards of pharmaceutical care and service in this large, internationally renowned teaching hospital. 

The Pharmacy department operates across the trust three main sites and provides comprehensive Pharmacy and Medicines Management Services to the Royal Free and a variety of external organisations. Its service portfolio is extensive which allows for some of the best training and working environments in the UK.

The Pharmacy department services include:

• Fully automated dispensing systems utilised in the dispensaries, stores and manufacturing departments

• Expert clinical pharmacy services to patients, wards and clinics which include but are not limited to HIV, Oncology, Renal (Medicine and transplantation), Hepatology (Medicine and Transplantation), Amyloidosis and Enzyme Replacement Therapies

• Pharmacist prescribing in a range of expanding clinical areas including antimicrobial stewardship, renal transplantation, hepatology, HIV medicine, oncology and cardiology

• MHRA licensed manufacturing facility which includes state of the art aseptic, chemotherapy, central intravenous additive services, non-sterile manufacturing and investigational medicinal compounding

• A research and development portfolio which supports investigator led and commercial clinical trials 

• Medicines Information for both the trust and patient helplines

• Procurement, stores and distribution services to the trust and external partners

• Wholly owned subsidiary pharmacies on two of the three trust sites where staff are able to experience community pharmacy activities with an extended range clinical specialties not seen in other trusts       

Pharmacy has close links with all clinical services, with dedicated clinical pharmacists who work at an MDT level with each speciality promoting efficacious, safe and cost-effective use of medication.

As one of the few trusts with a fully integrated electronic prescribing and administration system on two of the three trust sites, we are able to deliver enhanced pharmaceutical care with maximum in built safety systems.

Nuclear Medicine

We are a large imaging department providing a full range of diagnostic and therapeutic Nuclear Medicine services.The RFL Trust offer nuclear medicine at both the Royal Free and Barnet hospital sites with a multi-disciplinary staff group made up of technologists/radiographers, clinicians, radiopharmacy professionals, physicists and admin/clerical staff.

Both sites have gamma cameras and bone densitometry and at the Royal Free site we also offer PET/CT, SPECT/CT, a thriving radionuclide therapy service and a radiopharmacy unit with on-site production of PET and general tracers. Expansion works are underway to bring new, state of the art equipment to our service.

The cross-site team employs approximately 50 staff members with some working in both departments with a supportive and enthusiastic emphasis on research. In addition to World Class Care, the departmental ethos is to ensure radiation doses to patients and staff are kept as low as reasonably achievable and a lot of work is undertaken to develop and maintain this.

Imaging

The radiology departments across the RFL trust have a strong teamwork ethic and excellent interaction between staff bands and Consultants. We are a large tertiary referral NHS trust with smaller Satellite sites that offer diverse mixture of work across almost all disciplines.

Equipment replacement programs in place and ongoing across sites so staff can enjoy use of state of the art and modern technology to provide care to a wide range of patient groups. We have a successful cross site preceptorship program for newly qualified Band 5’s offering a supportive, reflective and educational structure to their first year's practice. This together with a structured induction and mentoring sees staff well integrated into the team and creates a sense of belonging.

Supportive of CPD and existing Advanced practice roles, fluoroscopy, lithotripsy, Interventional Breast US and US and CT guided injections. We have a strong and long established Reporting radiographer workforce including plain film, CT and MRI, who make a considerable contribution to the department and to the trust as a whole.

Respiratory

Respiratory disease is the second commonest cause for emergency admission to hospitals in the UK. Our respiratory service has a multi-disciplinary team of junior and senior doctors, academics, nursing staff, respiratory nurse specialists, respiratory clinical physiologists, highly specialised physiotherapists, psychology and administrative and operational support. The service provides a full range of secondary care inpatient and outpatient services at Barnet and Royal Free Hospitals, outpatients and bronchoscopy at Chase Farm Hospital and integrated outpatient services at a number of community hospitals.

Furthermore the Royal Free Hospital site is a supra-regional centre for complex pulmonary infection/TB and alpha-1-antitrypsin disease and a regional centre for lung cancer diagnostics (lung biopsies, EBUS) and for home ventilation and CPAP. It is the second largest lung cancer centre in London and in the top decile for 1 year lung cancer survival rates nationally.

The service is recognised for its regional and National postgraduate medical training, and at undergraduate level, provides clinical training (module A) to 110 year 4 UCL MBBS students per annum. The department receives consistently good feedback from students and has been awarded “UCL Top Teacher awards” for the last 4 consecutive years. Additionally the department has an active research arm with 2 Professors of respiratory medicine and it is ranked top within CRN North Thames for recruitment to clinical trials.

The respiratory ward at RFH is located on ward 8E which is currently shared with the general medicine service. This allows the bed base for respiratory to adjust depending on demand with an average of 28 respiratory patients in the winter months and 15 during the summer months. There is a dedicated 8 bedded respiratory care unit for patients with respiratory failure.

There are established specialist clinics in NIV, sleep, COPD, lung cancer, complex TB and NTM, asthma, ILD and pleural disease as well as general respiratory clinics. In addition there is a regional combined bronchiectasis and immunodeficiency clinic and a National alpha 1 antitrypsin service. Royal Free London also provides community COPD clinics in both Camden and Barnet.

There are specialist MDTs in lung cancer, ILD, complex TB, severe asthma and sleep and ventilation.

The department is an important teaching and training centre with research departments in COPD, TB and sleep and ventilation.

Chalkmill Drive Decontamination 

In June 2019 Chalkmill Drive Decontamination Unit opened. The unit facilitates the sterilization and decontamination services for our trust. In addition, the unit has been built with the capacity to provide services for external customers looking to outsource these services to a specialist NHS-led unit. We process 3.8 million instruments and 45,000 endoscopes each year but have capacity for 12 million instruments and 120,000 Endoscopes thus making it the largest NHS Decontamination unit in the country.

CMD is a large modern facility and opportunities for career progression are excellent as we continue to grow and create a centre of excellence. The CMD philosophy is to educate and develop all our staff so that they are supported to achieve their full potential. We have a range of roles that support career progression and develop the skills and knowledge of our teams for the future needs of our patients.

Medical Electronics - Our services

The medical electronics department is responsible for the repair and service of:

All medical electrical equipment (such as syringe drivers, pulse oximeters, infusion pumps, lasers, beds, hoists, scales and aneroid sphygmomanometers)

Other services provided by medical electronics include:

• Medical Equipment Governance​

• Advice on purchase of medical electrical equipment

• Acceptance and safety testing of all medical equipment coming into the trust Liaison with the Medicines & Healthcare Devices Regulatory Authority (MHRA) (including reporting adverse incidents)

• Disseminating alerts from the Central Alerting System (CAS)

• Advice on electrical safety for medical equipment

• Advice on Lasers

• Provide scientific support to the phototherapy unit in dermatologyClinical equipment training coordination for wards and departments

Ophthalmologists

We are a large Orthoptic department providing a comprehensive Orthoptic support for Ophthalmology services across Royal Free, Barnet, Edgware Community, Chase Farm St Pancras and the Whittington Hospitals

Our service offers core Orthoptics expertise for adult and Paediatric cases within Ophthalmology. We work closely with the ophthalmologist, nurses, Optometrists, ophthalmic technicians and administrative teams.

The Orthoptic service extends to support with Neurology, Maxillo facial and ENT services and we offer specific support for children screens and adults and children with visual problems and learning difficulties.

We also provide a wide range of diagnostics and ophthalmology support in an extended role capacity.

All the sites offer extended role opportunities and Orthoptic team comprises of approximately 13 staff members with some working in both departments and part time with a supportive and enthusiastic emphasis on audit, research and clinical development

In addition to World Class Care, the departmental ethos is to ensure a high quality standardised approach to eye health across our network. The team meet regularly as part of a network to maintain this and team members are regularly undergoing clinic audits and quality improvements projects to support this.

Pathology

Cellular Pathology Department

The Cellular Pathology department is located at the Royal Free Hospital site. The trust runs a sub-specialised integrated Cellular Pathology Service for the three member Hospitals of the trust and also cellular pathology services for the North Middlesex University Hospital (NMUH) though a service level agreement.

Dr Martin Young is the Clinical Director for Pathology Services. Dr Alan McGlennan is the Medical Director for GCS and Chase Farm Hospital.

There are 36 Histopathology Consultants employed within the department. There are Specialty Leads for Breast, GI, Lung, Skin, Renal, Gynaecology, Haemopathology, Head and Neck, Hepatobiliary and Liver.

We have a team of 11 registrars from the North Central London Histopathology training programme and three clinical fellows, all supported by educational supervisors within the department, lead by Dr Lauren Heptinstall (lead education supervisor). All trainees and clinical fellows participate in specimen dissection and reporting from all subspecialties and have tri-weekly departmental teaching.

We also have administration team of 8 members which comprises of MDT coordinators, MDT Clerk and PA/Administrators to support the team of consultants, Clinical Director and Assistant Operations Manager of Pathology. MDT coordinators also play an important role in supporting consultants for MDT preparation and presentation.

Clinical Biochemistry Department

The clinical Biochemistry laboratory is fully accredited to ISO 15189:2012. It is currently part of the Rapid Response laboratory on site at both sites and Specialist Biochemistry services are provided centrally from Halo building at Euston. The consultants have full IT connectivity with the Halo (via the HSL Laboratory information system WinPath).

Clinical Biochemistry laboratory services provide a clinically led comprehensive diagnostic service, with the clinical leadership being provided by 3 Medical Consultants. The team is supported by 2 full time PA/Administrators and 1 full time nurse specially dedicated to the Lipid Clinic.

The majority of clinical biochemistry test requests are derived from clinical services within the trust with only 15% of the workload being derived from GP’s. In addition there is a particular interest and expertise in cardiovascular disease and lipids. The department offers a National Reference Laboratory service in the area of lipids. The department has a strong clinical commitment and provides specialist patient care for lipids and cardiovascular disease.

The Royal Free is part of UCL medical school and the post-holder will be expected to actively participate in undergraduate teaching.

The Royal Free is a leading national centre for pulmonary hypertension, amyloidosis and carcinoid heart disease.

Health Service Laboratories

The Pathology Laboratory services are provided by the Joint Venture Pathology Provider Health Services Laboratories (HSL). HSL is jointly owned by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation trust, University College Hospitals London NHS Foundation trust and the private partner The Doctor’s Laboratory (TDL). The Joint Venture provider complies with strategic developments required by NHS Improvement and NHS England. The Medical Director for HSL is Dr Rachael Liebmann.